A week ago we got the news we have been waiting for since August. Our daughter has Autism. Specifically PDD,NOS and ADHD. Don’t know those acronyms? Consider yourself lucky. They stand for Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (she has autism but we don’t know what kind) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Life since the diagnosis has not been easy. There are just so many questions. Why does she have it? What did we do wrong? Can we treat it? How do we treat it? Will she ever have a” normal” life? All these questions have been the center of my life for the past 9 days. So far she has been to the doctor and we are trying to figure out the best course of treatment but her doctor doesn’t know what to do so we have to wait until the middle of February to be seen by the developmental pediatrician to get some answers. We have also gotten the ball rolling to get her enrolled in some programs to get her the services she so desperately needs. So right now there is not much to do except love her and try to do the best we can. We are handling it the best we know how and though our life doesn’t seem like our life we are all coping to the best of our ability. So far we are looking into some herbal supplements to help get her symptoms under control so she can feel better and are also looking into ABA therapy to go along with her speech and occupational therapy. Other than that life is moving on and we are just taking it one day at a time.

With the holidays just around the corner and family coming and going I have been looking for a few quick breakfast recipes that will keep everyone happy and not make our non GF house guests miserable. I have come across a few good recipes for waffles and such and now I have found a great recipe for muffins.

I was looking around the internet the other day and ran across ComfyBelly. Comfy belly has great recipes that will satisfy anyone. GF or not.  One thing I love about this site is the fact that you can search by ingredient. We use mostly almond flour in our house so I could just search for any recipe containing almond flour and look through those! I took the recipe for Banana Blueberry Muffins from ComfyBelly and made a few changes.

Ingredients

1/4 c. agave nectar

3 Tbsp. Grapeseed Oil

2 eggs

2 very ripe bananas

1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

3/4 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Salt

2 1/2 c. Almond Flour

2 c. Blueberries

2 Tbsp. Chopped Walnuts

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 310 degrees F.
2. Mix all the wet ingredients (except for the blueberries) together in a bowl until well blended.
3. Now add dry ingredients and mix well again.
4. Add the blueberries and fold in.
5. Add muffin liners to a muffin baking pan, and then add batter to each liner.
6. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from a muffin. I wait until they are very brown on top.
7. Cool and enjoy. I store these in the refrigerator, but you can store them outside for a few days, covered. They’re great toasted for a few minutes.

These muffins were truly delicious.

I made them for my DH to have after returning from his TDY and he loved them.

I hope everyone enjoys them as much as my family has.

Make sure you head over to ComfyBelly

to check out all the amazing recipes she has to offer

Nowadays it seems everyone is trying to do their part to be green. We all know the more we consume and waste the more damage we are doing to the earth and we are starting to wise up to the fact that we should reuse and recycle more things rather than just throwing them out. I have been working with making my own cleaners for a while. I was making them out a powdered soap I have called Rockin Green but they were too chalky and messy so I gave up and switched back to good ol’ Mr. Clean. I love how clean it gets my house but cleaning with the stuff gives me a horrible headache and leaves my house smelling too sanitized. I recently started buying Mrs. Meyers for it’s more natural properties and because the Orange Clove scent is AMAZING. But when I ran out and couldn’t find anymore I got frustrated and after some advice I decided to try to make my own cleaners again.

Making your own cleaners is really easy to do and you probably have most of the things you need in your house already. Some of the things you will need are:

Castille Soap (you can find this at your local health food store. I got the unscented version)

Baking Soda

Essential Oils (you will see me refer to these as EO’s):

Tea Tree

Lemon

Orange

any others you enjoy!

Vinegar (White works best but I used Apple Cider because I have a huge 2 qt.  jug of it.

Olive Oil

and water!!

See not so crazy I am sure you have most of that stuff right in your kitchen pantry!

Here is what I have going on in our house. As a bonus I am throwing in my dryer room. Don’t mind the funky outdated paneling and curtains. It has looked like this since we bought the house and redecorating the laundry room is not at the top of my list.

Top of my dryer.

Where I keep all my cleaning supplies and the ingredients to make them.

My EO basket

Cleaners!

EO disks go in the dryer with the clothes to scent them.

These aren’t really doing the job yet. Still have to tweak the recipe.

Soapnuts.

Yep I wash my clothes with those crazy looking things!

Powdered soapnuts.

Going to try using my soapnuts this way.

This is how they look after a violent turn through my Vitamix.

Lots of towels.

We are not to keen on paper towels.

Using towels for all your cleanup is a great way to start being greener.

looking into my laundry room.

I think this is called a kitty caddy.

I use it for all my brooms and such.

Folding table and baskets.

There are typically 3 baskets.

1 for me and the hubby

1 for the kids

and 1 for the bathroom and linen closet.

The things I keep under the table are

stuff that needs to be steam cleaned or washed on it’s own

and a bag for clothes the kids have outgrown.

Keeping the bag there makes it easy for me to just go through the stuff as i fold it

rather than going through their room.

My dryer.

I have an old broom handle above the door to hang things that need to air dry.

PS. That broom handle hurts when it falls on your head.

Ok now here is the list of cleaning recipes.

No I did not come up with all of these and some I have made variations to. If you search the internet you will find a ton of recipes if you do not like mine. For all of my cleaners I used peppermint oil. A few reasons:

A. I love the smell of peppermint.

B. It seems to make the house feel more cheerful.

C. Peppermint EO in itself is know for being motivating. And I need motivation.

D. It repels bugs and rodents. (We tend to get the big tree/water roaches in the winter and summer so I figured this would help. I will also help you if you have a mouse problem)

All purpose cleaner:

1 Tbsp. Castille soap

1 qt. warm water

EO 10-15 drops

Mix in a spray bottle and use to clean your countertops, sink, stove, oven, table etc.

Floor cleaner:

1.4 c castille soap

2 G. warm water

EO – as much as you want if you want

Mix in a mop bucket and clean your floors.

Floor shine:

1:1 ration of Veg. Oil and vinegar

EO if you want it.

Rub into your floors with a soft rag in a circular motion.

For linoleum floors add skim milk to water and a damp mop for a clean shine.

“comet”

3/4 c. baking soda

EO  30-40 drops

Mix in a bowl and let sit. Place in a shaker (old parmesan jar works well).

Clean with it just like you would comet.

Follow up with scented vinegar for a perfectly clean disinfected surface.

This is also great for deodorizing your carpet.

Scented vinegar:

Vinegar

EO 20-30 drops

Mix this up in a 16 oz. spray bottle and use it to disinfect and clean.

“febreeze”

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vinegar

2 c. water

EO – 100 drops

Mix in a spray bottle and enjoy!

Dusting spray:

2 tsp. olive oil

1.4 c. vinegar

EO 20 drops

water

Mix in a spray bottle and use it just like pledge.

Dish soap:

1:1 ratio of water to castille soap

EO

Mix in a bottle and use it to wash your dishes!

Baby Wash/Hand Soap/Pet Shampoo

Ingredients

my finished product in a recycled bottle!

10 oz. water

1 oz castille soap

1 oz of your favorite oils

I used almond and grapeseed

and a few drops of EO

I put a little bit of tea tree and some peppermint.

Lavender would be lovely for baby wash.

Mix and pour in the bottle of your choice.

Safe for all humans

and

Guinea Pigs!

Our gluten free journey thankfully has been an easy one. With lots of resources at the click of a mouse things are not as difficult as I had assumed they would be. However one of our greatest challenges has been BREAD!!!!!

Our family, well me and my children, are very particular about our bread. We won’t eat just anything. The bread has to be just right or my kids will throw it or spit it out. I swear I have tried about 20 different bread recipes all yielding the same results. Decent enough bread but it did not pass the test of my children. After months of trial and error (and of kids who only wanted a decent AB&J sandwich) I have found it. This recipe has become the go to bread recipe in our house. I have not gotten brave enough to really change up the recipe any but I am sure you could mess with it a bit and still get great results.This recipe is courtesy of GlutenFreeCookingSchool.com!

Here is the recipe from GlutenFreeCookingSchool.com

YEAST PROFF

1 T bread machine yeast

1 T sugar (I have not tried subing with agave yet but I plan to try it soon)

1.5 C warm water

2.5 C Gluten Free flour mix ( see the rest of the post for my mix)

2 t. xanthan gum

1 t. salt

3 eggs

1.5 T oil (grapeseed makes it oh so yummy)

1 t. cider vinegar

Mix your yeast proof and set it aside.

Beat your eggs and add the oil and vinegar. Mix well.

Mix in your xanthan gum, salt and flour. Mix well. It will be very lumpy and hard to mix at this point.

Add your yeast proof to the mixture and mix well.

At this point you can do two things.

1. Pour it in your loaf pan and let it rise for 1 hour then bake it at 375 for 50 – 60 minutes.

or

2. (this is what I do) Pour it into the pan of your breadmaker (without the paddle) and bake it on an express bake for 1.5 lbs (about a 58 minute cycle).

Either way works well but I find it easier to mix and throw it in the breadmaker to let it do the rest for me.

This bread is really delicious and your friends and family will not even know that they are eating gluten free bread.

My kids favorite way to eat this is right out of the breadmaker with some butter and cinnamon sugar on it. They eat it up.

Now for the GF flour mix. This has been a tricky part of baking gluten free. In the beginning I would look for recipes that sounded good and make them and they typically had a ton of ingredients that I didnt have. I would go out and buy the ingredients come home make the recipe and it wouldn’t work out to well so I would hunt for another and that one would have ingredients that I didn’t have so back to the store I would go (mind you I would have to troll several stores before finding out where to get what I needed) and buy those ingredients. This continued on and on until I decided a mix was what I needed. Finding a GF flour mix recipe is a hard thing to do. I wanted the simplest most versatile one I could find that suited our needs and tasted good. Easier said than done. There are about a thousand mixes out there all whose authors tote that they are the answer to your GF cooking and will work in anything. Sadly most of these do not live up to their promises and I had many failed creations as a result. So after months of looking I finally came across the perfect blend. I found it on one of my late night GF excursions on a little website called frugalabundance.com! It really is great and so far I have made cookies and cupcakes and dinner rolls using this blend. For my blend I usually use Almond flour in place of the Bean flour and it comes out delicious. Here is the recipe:

***Glad Flour***

The Best Ever, Easiest to Use Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour

Small Batch	INGREDIENTS	Big Batch
2 cups	Brown or White Rice Flour	6 pounds
2/3 cup	Cornstarch	2 pounds
1/3 cup	Tapioca Flour	1 pound
1/3 cup	Soy Flour or Other Bean Flour	1 pound (4 cups)
Makes 3-1/3 cups	.	Makes 10 pounds or 30 cups

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine all of the ingredients in a large jar or plastic container with a lid. Mix thoroughly. I use my hands for mixing because I find it’s most efficient. There are usually a few nooks and crannies of flour that stubbornly refuse to mingle with their neighbors. By using my hands I can seek out these rebellious pockets and convince them to hang out with the rest of the crowd. Use this blend in any recipe calling for Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour.

Per Cup: 565 Calories; 6g Fat (9.1% calories from fat); 12g Protein; 116g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 12mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 7 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Fat.

I make this flour mix in big batches and store it in a large container in my refrigerator. I use the 3/4 c. per 1 c. wheat flour rule and add 1.2 t. per c. of flour that the recipe calls for. I have had excellent results with this and hope you will too.

Happy Baking!!!!!

So on Tuesday we will be 5 months Gluten Free!!!!! Yay big cheers for us. In the time since I last updated a LOT has happened. I have started my own Doula business, DS broke his leg and had subsequent necrotic tissue, (ICK) my finger is still not healed, DD is in Speech (2x’s a week), OT(1x a week)  and Psychological Therapy (1x every 2 weeks) and undergoing testing for Autism, 3 birthdays, 3 holidays, 1 birth (a friends) and my hubby went through ALS and got a promotion. Needless to say it has been a whirlwind couple of months so as much as I wanted to blog I have not had the time nor the energy to do so.

Being gluten free has been a journey. One I am glad we have started and I am happy to say we are navigating with relative ease. We have found some amazing recipes and had some great support along the way. We continue to see our DD make improvements. She knows her alphabet, is learning the sounds of her letters, can count in english and spanish, knows all her colors and shapes and is learning addition. Her imagination has grown and she is always engaging in pretend play and she is getting better at playing with other children. It has been amazing to watch her improve everyday. DH has been doing great as well. Being off gluten has really improved his life. A lot of the intestinal issues he had before have cleared up and he is feeling great!!

As I mentioned DS broke his leg. It was not a bad break but it did require a cast for 6 weeks and when the cast came off we discovered a hole of necrotic tissue in the bottom of his foot that had formed from him walking in the cast. He is the kind of kid who never complains so we did not know that he had made a big nasty bloody hole in his foot until we got the orthopedist and they removed the cast. It has been a long recovery and he still has a little scab but he is doing great and doesn’t seem too bothered by it at all.

Labor day weekend I took the plunge and attended a Doula training course through Birth Arts International. I attended with some friends of mine who share my passion for birth and came out of it with my certificate of training. I am still working toward certification but I can now attend (and have attended) births as a trained doula!!! This is the first step (for me) towards becoming a midwife. I am excited for the work I get to do and am hoping to soon start working with a pregnancy crisis center to help mothers who are lacking in support!

Ok I know this has been kind of choppy but I just wanted to post an update on the last few months of our crazy life. Hopefully(and don’t hold me to this) I will be able to keep up with writing now that we have gotten into our new routine of life.